Q. What’s your best career advice for somebody who’s just graduating from college?
A. Most people who graduate from college think they have to make a perfect choice. Is it Goldman Sachs? Is it Google? Is it Apple? They think that their first job is going to determine their career, if not their life.
Looking back, that’s absolutely incorrect. By definition you cannot make a mistake in your first job other than becoming a consultant or an investment banker.
Let’s say you land in a start-up, and it becomes the next Google. Now you’re 25 years old, and you’re worth $50 million. Anybody would call that a success.
But let’s say you join a start-up, and it implodes. You would learn more about leadership inside a company that crashes than you would inside the next Google.
Specifically, you will learn what not to do. You can’t make a mistake as a college graduate.
Great advise. What do you guys think?
